GDR tour 1952

The 1952 GDR tour took place from September 20 to 28. The stage race was held for the fourth time. Erich Schulz from Berlin won the individual competition ; in the team standings, the first team of the sports association unit won .

Attendees

On Saturday, September 20, 1952, 105 drivers started the race in East Berlin . They came from the following 21 teams, each comprising five starters: Industrial District Dortmund I and II, the sports associations Aktivist, Aufbau, Chemie, Unit I, II and III, Up, Progress, Locomotive, Motor I and II, Post, Rotation I and II, Steel, tractor, turbine, people's police and bismuth. The teams from Czechoslovakia and Hungary that were still involved in the previous year did not participate again in 1952. For the first time, "Täve" Schur was able to win a stage on this tour of the country.

Route

The tour was 1,539 kilometers long, was divided into eight stages and touched twelve of the fourteen GDR districts . The start and finish was in East Berlin . The first stage from Berlin to Stralsund was the longest part of the day at 235 kilometers. The shortest was the time trial stage with 67 kilometers from Chemnitz to Dresden . On the fourth stage from Magdeburg to Erfurt the Kyffhäuser had to be crossed, the sections Leipzig - Chemnitz and Chemnitz - Dresden led the riders through the mountainous Vogtland and the Ore Mountains .

Race course

Horst Bräunlich (right) on the GDR tour in 1952

The tour turned into a duel between the favorite Erich Schulz from the Post Sports Association and the captain of the second team of the SV unit Walter Nickel. At first everything seemed to speak for nickel. With a sprint victory over Schulz on the first stage, he won the yellow jersey and defended it until the sixth segment of the day. The turning point came on the sixth stage, later described by the drivers as the most difficult route. After 150 kilometers, Nickel suffered a faint attack, as a result of which he fell two minutes behind the group of drivers in which his rival Erich Schulz was. In addition, his teammate Jahresling made a tactical mistake when he was leading the way with Schulz in the top group. Although Schulz arrived in Chemnitz with only a second group of pursuers, he had made up so much time against Nickel that he now led the overall standings with a good 50 seconds ahead of Nickel. In the time trial the following day, Schulz managed to take Nickel a further two minutes, so that he could tackle the final stage to Berlin with a lead of almost three minutes. Since Nickel was unable to shake off his opponent, both of them crossed the finish line in the main field, and Erich Schulz was the overall winner of the tour.

In the team standings, the first team from the Unity Sports Association prevailed. Although SV Motor I was ahead at the start of the tour, it fell far behind on the fourth stage. After that it looked like a duel between Unit I and II for a long time before Unit II fell back into midfield on the seventh stage. At this point in time, Unit I already had a lead of over 16 minutes over the new Second SV Rotation I. The unit drivers were able to extend this lead to 30:14 minutes by the end.

Stage overview
stage	Start finish	Length (km)	winner	Time (h)
1	Berlin - Stralsund	235	Walter Nickel (SV Unit II)	6:31:07
2	Stralsund - Schwerin	170	Georg Stoltze (SV Lokomotive)	5:23:12
3	Schwerin - Magdeburg	224	Heinz Gleinig (SV Unit I)	6:13:18
4th	Magdeburg - Erfurt	215	Bruno Zieger (SV Post)	7:09:25
5	Erfurt - Leipzig	187	Gustav-Adolf Schur (SV construction)	4:59:51
6th	Leipzig - Chemnitz	209	Bruno Zieger (SV Post)	1:47:00
7th	Chemnitz - Dresden	067	Fritz Yearling (SV Unit II)	4:47:56
8th	Dresden - Berlin	232	Werner Malitz (SV Unit II)	6:42:15

Final results

Individual evaluation
	driver	team	Time (h)
01 .	Erich Schulz	SV Post	45:28:18
02.	Walter Nickel	SV unit II	45:31:07
03.	Bruno Zieger	SV Post	45:31:12
04th	Heinz Gleinig	SV unit I	45:31:35
05.	Paul Dinter	SV engine I	45:33:30
06th	Dieter Koehler	SV steel	45:34:16
07th	Bernhard Wille	SV steel	45:35:01
08th.	Bernhard Trefflich	SV unit I	45:39:39
09.	Werner Gallinge	SV unit I	45:39:43
10.	Lothar Master I.	SV bismuth	45:41:52
11.	Fritz yearling	SV unit II	45:45:22
12.	Gustav-Adolf Schur	SV structure	45:45:43
13.	Georg Stoltze	SV locomotive	45:48:19
14th	Horst Beuster	SV rotation I	45:51:20
15th	Rudi Kirchhoff	SV engine I	45:54:02
16.	Horst Wagner	SV rotation I	45:54:58
17th	Heinz Busse	SV Up	45:57:20
18th	Heinz Jakob	SV rotation I	45:59:51
19th	Werner Weber	SV bismuth	46:00:47
20th	Willi Goebel	Dortmund II	46:06:09
0 ...
85.	Horst Pfefferkorn	SV progress	51:43:34

Team ranking
	team	Time (h)
01 .	Sports Association Unit I.	136: 48: 09
02.	Sports Association Rotation I	137: 18: 23
03.	Sports Association Post	137: 23: 27
04th	Sports Association Motor I	137: 30: 20
05.	Sports association Wismut	137: 32: 15
06th	Sports Association Steel	137: 35: 59
07th	Sports Association Unit II	137: 44: 36
08th.	Sports association setup	138: 27: 56
09.	Sports Association Empor	138: 44: 08
10.	Sports Association Locomotive	139: 05: 26
11.	Sports Association Turbine	139: 06: 28
12.	Industrial District Dortmund II	139: 29: 17
13.	Sports Association Chemistry	139: 39: 10
14th	Sports Association Motor II	140: 07: 19
15th	Sports Association Unit III	140: 18: 45
16.	Tractor Sports Association	140: 21: 42
17th	Sports association activist	142: 20: 04
18th	Sports Association Progress	149: 54: 56
	eliminated: IB Dortmund I SV Rotation II SV Volkspolizei

literature

Illustrated cycling , born 1952

Individual evidence

^ General Secretariat of the Cycling Section of the GDR (ed.): Illustrated Radrennsport . No. 17/1952 . Sportverlag, Berlin 1952, p. 8 .

[1] General Secretariat of the Cycling Section of the GDR (ed.): Illustrated Radrennsport . No. 17/1952 . Sportverlag, Berlin 1952, p. 8 .